Democrats want ethics probe of video shown at Christie town hall

The New Jersey Democratic State Committee has asked the State Ethics Commission to investigate whether Governor Christie’s office violated state law by showing a Republican-funded video at a town hall-style event this month.

The video was produced for the Republican National Convention and was shown before Christie took the stage in Tampa to deliver the keynote address.

New Jersey Democratic Party Chairman John Wisniewski sent a letter to the State Ethics Commission on Monday questioning the video’s use at a Sept. 13 taxpayer-funded event in Howell. Wisniewski cites a state statute and administrative code that bars employees from engaging in any political activity during work hours.

“Based on the statute and the above facts, the NJDSC believes that an indisputable violation of state law has occurred,” he wrote. “Clearly, materials produced as political speech were presented by government employees at a government event.”

The statute and administrative code that Wisniewski cites both apply to people in “a career service or senior executive service,” which would not include Christie. However, former Gov. James E. McGreevey signed an executive order in 2003 that revised the rules.

That executive order bars governors from engaging in campaign work during state time, defining “campaign work” as something that does not “reasonably and primarily fulfill the employee’s official duties” and “materially contributes to a person’s chance of election or reelection to public office or the prospects of a candidate.”

After the video was shown in Howell, Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak said the office considered the film biographical, but would not be using it again.

The Democrats said it’s a political video that was produced to promote Christie at a partisan event.

It starts with a clip of a Middlesex student asking the governor during a school visit about the best part of his job. Christie met with children in a summer camp program at the school prior to signing a bill overhauling the way the state awards tenure to teachers. There are also clips from his boardwalk meet-and-greet events, testimonials from his wife and former Gov. Tom Kean, and a bill signing for a Crime Victims Bill of Rights.

A spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee said the Romney campaign owns the rights to all of the videos shown at the convention. The video was posted on the New Jersey Republican State Committee’s YouTube channel the same day it was shown in Tampa.

Wisniewski noted in his letter that the video does not identify who paid for it and questions whether it should be listed on campaign finance reports as an in-kind contribution to the state GOP. He sent a copy of the letter to the Federal Election Commission and the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission.

New Jersey Republican State Committee Spokesman Doug Mayer said there is nothing wrong with the way the party posted the video online.

“The video in question doesn’t have a disclaimer because it didn’t need to have one,” he said. “It doesn’t promote the nomination, election or defeat of any one political candidate. For the very same reason, it isn’t considered a contribution.”